23 Jun 2016
Moving to a standards-based profession
In NSW all teachers employed since October 1 2004 have been required, through an Act of Parliament, to become accredited against teaching standards. This means that for the past 11 years in NSW every teacher new to the profession has been using the Standards and engaging in the accreditation process.
To recognise the professional qualifications and experience of teachers qualified before 2004, this Act was amended in 2014. From 2018 these teachers will be recognised as meeting full accreditation at the Proficient teacher stage as part of their performance and development processes.
Once accredited, all teachers will be required to maintain their accreditation in an ongoing way throughout their teaching careers
The purpose of teaching standards
The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers define the knowledge, practice and professional engagement needed for high quality, effective teaching that has been shown to improve student learning. In doing this the teaching standards provide a useful framework for a broad range of education stakeholders including teachers, school leaders, teacher educators, professional associations, parents/carers and the public.
In particular, the standards framework gives the profession a shared language for talking about teaching practice – what we know, what we do, what we believe in and what we value about teaching.
Seven standards
The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers articulate the key elements of contemporary, high quality teaching through seven standards that form the foundation of the teaching standards framework. These standards are:
- Know your students and how they learn
- Know the content and how to teach it
- Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
- Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
- Assess, provide feedback and report on student learning
- Engage in professional learning
- Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers and the community
These seven standards are further organised into three domains of Professional Knowledge, Professional Practice and Professional Engagement that extend across the four career stages of Graduate teacher, Proficient teacher, Highly Accomplished teacher and Lead teacher.
Four career stages
The framework's four career stages acknowledge and map out a career long continuum of classroom practice, capabilities and expertise that we'd expect to see demonstrated by teachers.
As well the framework's higher stages of accreditation are designed so that our most skilled teachers can lead and model best practice teaching from which other teachers can learn. These stages provide a career pathway where exemplary classroom teachers can be recognised and rewarded for their expertise, skills and support of other teachers.
This way the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers provides a structure to guide the preparation, development, support and recognition of all teachers; a framework against which all teachers can plan, practice, reflect on and refine their teaching; and a way for teachers to monitor their ongoing growth and development as professionals.
Teacher Standards in Action